King Rat
by WOWZAcoolBEANS
Summary: Cross wouldn’t have thought that sometimes bratty little girls with attractive mothers would grow up to be attractive women. Trying to pay the rent, Cross visits an old friend's child, and finds that she's grown up. Cross/Anita.


**Title:** King Rat

**Synopsis:** Cross wouldn't have thought that sometimes bratty little girls with attractive mothers would grow up to be attractive women themselves. After getting into some financial trouble, Cross visits an old acquaintance and finds that she's no longer the little girl who he had remembered her as. Cross/Anita.

**Rating: **T

**A/N**: I really like Anita. There's almost no fanfiction about her, which makes me sad, so I wrote this. It's not that long and not that great, but I had fun writing it. The lyrics are from 'King Rat' by Modest Mouse, which I think is a great song to describe Cross as a person. Relax, read and please review. My birthday is Monday, if that gives you some incentive to leave a little positive feedback.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own -Man because if I did certain terrible circumstances wouldn't have met with Cross.

--

"_Even crooks have to pay the rent._"

-'King Rat' by Modest Mouse

--

It was a hell of a lot easier doing it when Allen was around. Though his idiot apprentice wasn't good for much, paying his debts was something that that the kid could do like no other. It didn't matter how he did it (though rumors of his infamous cheating came back to him every once in awhile, making Cross smile), but that kid was the king of paying off that man's debts.

Now he found it even harder to pay when that horrible notice that told him to even up. Sure, he could have sold himself into prostitution and made a fortune rather easily, but that was just too easy. There was nothing worth doing if there wasn't a fight to do it. One needed to struggle to grow stronger; that's why he made Allen go through so much. That, and, well, Cross was a generally lazy person unless it came to fighting the Millennium Earl.

And so that was why it was a fight to force himself up to the familiar looking brothel in China, where he knew a fight would ensue to get that woman to pay his bills for him. General Cross couldn't honestly think that he was Anita's favorite person (though it was an almost impossible thought for a woman to be able to resist him), and he was pretty sure that she would not be smiling when he showed up on her doorstep, despite being a benefactor of the Order.

Entering the lobby, a group of girls stared at him for a moment, and loving the attention, he smiled and gave them a wink. Like young women usually were, they all giggled together, flattered by the attention that he gave them.

"General Cross, as always, you are tricking women." The booming voice could have come from only one person.

"Mahoja, you are as womanly and as beautiful as ever." He said sarcastically.

The woman crossed her arms in front of her massive chest. "What is it that you're here for General Cross? Anita-sama is a very busy woman." She asked, her reverence for her master as clear as it ever was. It was almost frightening how that woman had such… motherly tendencies towards Anita.

"Just let me speak with her; I swear that this is of the upmost Order importance." Sighing, Mahoja gestured for the obnoxious man to follow her, and so he did. No conversation was made between the two of them; Mahoja was never one to talk to the idiotic excuse for a male specimen that had ensnared Anita-sama's mother with dirty lies and rather expensive sex. When they reached the room that had, at one time, been the chambers of Anita's mother, Cross spoke again. "Thank you Mahoja. I wish you the best."

Pushing past the other woman, he opened the door and shut it quickly, not wanting the her in the room while he hit up her master for cash. Angrily there was a pound on the door from the other side, but Cross kept his back to the door, strong enough to hold the angered Mahoja out.

Turning his attention away from the man-like woman, he saw the goddess sitting in front of him. In traditional Chinese garb, Cross could see that little Anita had grown up. When he had first met her she had been a teenager, still growing into who she would be. Now, he saw, her body had finally caught up to her age, and he must say that it suited her greatly. Cross had seen many women in his days, but there was no doubt that Anita had become one of the most beautiful. Quite a feat; Cross was impressed.

"Anita, you look beautiful. Just like your mother." Scoffing she looked past him as she sat as serenely as her mother did the first time she had met him. There were many similarities between the two women; it was now easy for him to see how the two were related for the first time.

"What are you here for, General Cross?" Anita asked a bitter edge to her voice. "Money or for the certain entertainment that you can only receive from a woman?"

Smiling, Cross noticed the differences in her demeanor since the last time they had met. As a young woman she was timid and shy; always sulking around the large shadow that her mother cast. Now it seemed like she had finally grown up to become her own person. "Both, if possible. First things first though, I've got some bills that I need to pay and nothing to pay them with."

Sighing, Anita pointed to a dresser. "There's money in there. Take what you need." There was a bored sense to her voice, which irritated Cross just a bit. Beautiful woman should love beautiful men like himself; there was no use for either kind of beauty otherwise. If Anita cared at all about the future of the human race, she should be on his hands and knees begging to procreate with him at that moment. Together they would have had beautiful children (not that cross would have wanted anything to do with any brats; he had tried having an apprentice once, and though Allen was a good kid, children weren't Cross's cup of tea).

"All this time, Anita, and that's how you treat me? I'm practically a childhood friend of yours, and that's the welcome that I get? I must say, I'm slightly appalled." As suave as ever, Cross reached into his pocket and grabbed both a pack of cigarettes and a lighter. Not bothering to ask whether or not it was okay to smoke in Anita's personal quarters, he took a cigarette out of the pack and lit the tip of it. Slowly he inhaled the smoke.

Still irritated, Anita spoke once again. "A childhood friend? Barely. I know prostitutes with more dignity than you." The words were so sincere, and yet so crude coming from Anita's mouth that Cross involuntarily chuckled. "I'm not joking." Anita said just a bit sourly, a piece of her teenager-self showing through the façade of adulthood. In the end she would always retain part of who she was from years past.

"I know you aren't darling, and that's the frightening part. Where did you learn language like that? Your mother never spoke that way." Taking a few steps closer to Anita, he spewed some more smoke out of his mouth. The girl made a face, but said nothing on the subject.

"I'm not my mother, you see, General. We're two very different people."

Not exactly listening to what she was saying, and just hearing the cadence of her voice, Cross lost himself for a moment. In the presence of a beautiful woman, he occasionally would find it difficult to control himself. Little Anita had grown up, and Cross noticed. But it wasn't the little Anita that he thought of as he walked over to the girl and pressed his lips on hers.

There was something that Cross must have not done right, because what most women usually swooned over was met with a sharp slap on the face. Luckily, it didn't hit his mask, because if it had, Cross was sure that it was so hard that the mask would have shattered. But instead of being irritated or turned off, by this, Cross smiled. "You've got spunk, kid. I like you." Anita scoffed and said nothing. "That settles that, I'll be staying here for a while. You'll fall to my charms yet."

"I'd like to see you try." The words came out of Anita's mouth involuntarily, and it showed. This girl was an interesting one; the hunt would make it worth setting his sights on.

Smiling, Cross exhaled his smoke into Anita's face. "Just you wait."

A slight sneer on her face, Anita pointed towards the door. "Tell Mahoja that you will be staying. She's show you to a room." Smiling, Cross tipped his hat to the angry Anita, and then walked towards the door. Though he no longer had Allen to pay his rent, maybe his new rent-payer would be worth keeping around for a while.

--

_Fin_


End file.
